Toner-based document imaging, such as electrophotographic, iongraphic, magnetographic, and similar imaging techniques, generally involves forming an electrostatic or magnetic image on a charged or magnetized photoconductive plate or drum, brushing the plate or drum with charged or magnetized toner, transferring the image onto a substrate such as paper, and fusing the toner onto the substrate using heat, pressure, and/or a solvent. Using this technique, relatively inexpensive images can be easily formed on a surface of the substrate.
Because toner-based imaging is a relatively quick and inexpensive technique for producing copies of images, the technique is often employed to produce documents that were traditionally formed using other forms of printing or imaging—e.g., impact printing or ink-jet printing. For example, in recent years, toner-based imaging has been employed to produce financial documents, such as personal checks, stocks, and bank notes; legal documents such as wills and deeds; medical documents such as drug prescriptions and doctors' orders; and the like. Unfortunately, because the image is formed on the surface of the substrate, documents produced using toner-based imaging techniques are relatively easy to forge and/or duplicate.
Various techniques for printing or forming secure documents have been developed over the years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,217, issued to Gruber et al. on Jun. 23, 1992, discloses a secure printing toner for electrophotographic processing. This toner, when exposed to a solvent such as toluene, often used in document forgery, produces a color stain indicative of the attempted forgery. This toner is only useful to disclose an attempted forgery when a particular solvent is used to remove a portion of a printed image. Thus, the toner cannot be used to mitigate copying of the document or forgery by adding material to the document.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,714,291, issued to Marinello et al. on Feb. 3, 1998, discloses another toner that includes submicron ultraviolet sensitive particles. An authenticity of the document can be verified using an ultra-violet scanner. Requiring use of an ultra-violet scanner is generally undesirable because it adds cost to a forgery analysis and requires additional equipment.
Other techniques for producing secure images include modifying the paper onto which the image is printed. Such modified papers include paper including a low-ink-absorption coating and paper including crushable micro capsules that contain leuco ink and a color acceptor. Although techniques including these forms of paper work relatively well for impact-type printing or copying, the techniques would not work well in connection with toner-based printing methods.
Other techniques for producing secure images include providing special paper coatings to increase smudge resistance of an image created by an electrostatic process. However, the coatings generally do not affect an ability to add material to the document or authenticate the originality of the document.
For the foregoing reasons, improved methods and apparatus for forming secure documents using toner-based processing, which are relatively easy and inexpensive, are desired.